No Crayon Left Behind 2013

Smoky Row Elementary School

Did you know that crayons can be recycled? Students at Smoky Row Elementary School raised awareness about how easy and fun it can be to reduce, reuse, and recycle even unusual items with their crayon reusing and recycling project cleverly named No Crayon Left Behind.

The students, teachers, and parents had noticed in past years that a lot of their used or broken crayons ended up in the school’s trash bins at the end of each school year.

The students discovered a company named Crazy Crayons that accepted crayons for recycling into both new crayons and fire starters.

Art teacher Mrs. Cinder helped get the word out to students regarding the program, and accepted the whole, unused crayons to use in her classroom.

Students listened to video morning announcements and then lined up to donate their crayons. It was a school-wide event.

Smoky Row students and their families pitched in to sort the crayons and package them for shipping.

Teachers, custodians, and students noticed that sometimes even brand new crayons were thrown away.

The students enlisted the help of the Smokey Row student Green Team to help them make posters, signs, and boxes to collect the unwanted crayons at their school.

Although many crayons were collected over 3 months of school, the vast majority were collected during the final week of classes.

In addition to teaching about how fun it can be to reuse and recycle crayons, the group also taught about “closing the loop” by not only recycling but also buying recycled products. They did this by purchasing recycled crayons from Crazy Crayons!

Ten large boxes of crayons were mailed to Crazy Crayons to be recycled. Many boxes of crayons will be reused and 400 new recycled crayons will be enjoyed by all Smoky Row students next year.